GOTAFE Students from Certificate 3 in Visual Arts were involved in a making the collaborative sculpture titled Aunty Girl. The sculpture is an icon who represents a proud, resilient Aboriginal woman, and was made in response to the 2018 NAIDOC theme, ‘Because of her, we can.’

Students and GOTAFE staff attended the exhibition launch and dinner over the weekend to represent ‘Aunty Girl’ and this region. There they joined up to 30 other members of the collaborative network of Victorian Indigenous women artists who are committed to promoting unique art practices. Central Goldfields gallery had record number attendees at the opening launch and gave a very positive response to seeing the sculpture in Maryborough.

GOTAFE CEO Travis Heeney said, “The Aunty Girl sculpture is a celebration of Indigenous women. We are proud of our students and trainers who were involve in bringing her to life and encourage everyone to go and see the sculpture and other art works on display.”

Aunty girl has also featured and was awarded Highly Commended prize at the Koorie Art Awards 2018 held at the Koorie Heritage Trust at Federation Square, Melbourne and the ARTeffects exhibition which was held at GOTAFE Shepparton.